Fox Chapel Publishing
CompanionHouse Books
May 14, 2019
Blurb: You Love To Drink Tea. Why Not Grow Your Own?
If you’ve ever considered raising your own tea, this comprehensive guide is the place to start. Growing Your Own Tea Garden is packed with inspiration and practical instructions for cultivating and enjoying delicious teas. Author Jodi Helmer helps you plan and plant a productive backyard tea garden, with sample garden designs and cultivation advice. She shows you how to choose the right crops for your soil and climate, starting with the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) and going on through a comprehensive survey of tisanes, or herbal teas. Discover how to grow the full range of herbal infusions that make wonderful teas, from flowering chamomile and lavender to chicory roots, rose hips, lemon verbena, peppermint, aromatic bergamot and more. Jodi shows you how to harvest, dry and store your tea to enjoy all year long, along with brewing tips and creative recipes.
Inside Growing Your Own Tea Garden
· Everything you need to know to create a healthy, bountiful tea garden and enjoy high quality tea
· How to grow dozens of crops that make marvelous teas, herbal infusions and decoctions
· Sample tea garden designs, including instructions for growing tea in container gardens and raised beds
· Understanding the differences between black tea, green tea, white tea and herbal tea
· How to dry and store your leaves for consumption on cool autumn days
· Let it steep: how to brew the perfect cup of tea
SASCHA DARLINGTON’S REVIEW
I have been fascinated by herbs since I was a tween, perhaps because of folklore or their ubiquity in literature or the mere fact that the old farmers I knew in West Virginia used fresh ones in such a commonplace manner, which I never saw in the city where I lived. And, even before that I was a tea drinker and still am. So it was only natural that I would be drawn to a book like Growing Your Own Tea Garden by Jodi Helmer.
Growing Your Own Tea Garden suggests possible herbs, flowers, and tea to grown in your home garden and the way in which you might grow them, if you’re out of the growing zone. Please note here that the growing information is geared toward the US and Canada. If you live in another region you might want to compare your average temperatures to the recommended growing zones.
Helmer provides a brief history on tea and mentions one I’d never heard of Yaupon, which is “the only native North American plant that contains caffeine.” Cool!
The section on which herbs, flowers, and fruits to grow for tea provides information on growing and how to make a tea from the ingredient. And, here again I learned something new. Cilantro is one of those herbs that I’ve heard that people either love or hate, but I didn’t know that it was because some people genetically taste it as “soap.” (Don’t you just love learning these things?)
There is a recipe section, which I love. While I consider myself a decent cook, I flounder around when considering teas. This section takes the guesswork out and might even give me confidence to branch out.
Growing Your Own Tea Garden contains a lot of prudent advice regarding plant identification, plant picking, and what to look for and what to look out for.
Growing Your Own Tea Garden is an excellent addition to your library if you are an herb and tea lover like me. Mind you, I have to pull out a lot of mint now to make room for other herbs, but it will be worth it.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
rating:
4 butterflies and a ladybug out of 5 butterflies
Never even thought I could grow my own tea! And interesting about cilantro, which I love, but several friends don’t. Thanks for bringing such interesting books to light.